The point of ferro-fibrous is to lighten the armor, to lessen the tonnage of armor/unit, but likewise having 20% more armor-instead retains the original cumulative weight of the armor, 12% for clans accounting for less slots.
This way, we have several choices with Ferro-Fibrous -- lighten or toughen the mech, of course toughening the mech means that it's not lighter and would potentially have less firepower, likewise lightening the mech is not tougher but frees tonnage for potentially more firepower. This option further adds different possibilities in the mech lab.
It can also address certain armor issues of notoriously fragile mechs, should they choose to forgo the free tonnage, like Urbie's weak RA, the Armor-Quirk-less Hunchback IIC's torsi, King-Crab's prominent physique, Executioner's massive RA, etc.
It can also buff the IS more than clans, after all omnipods cannot change structure type and thus Direwolf is still stuck at 614, having the option to make them a lot more tankier, would further balance the IS/Clan. Then again those omni-mechs stuck at FFA too will have it's effects but that just means that they can go heavy on armor but not on weapons or vice-versa.
How it works with armor-quirks may be the same, like +20 Armor Quirk would become +22 -- of course if it were to be consistent. But perhaps it might not affect it that way, to make FFA dilute the effects of Armor-Quirks on purpose, or perhaps lessen even remove Armor-Quirks entirely.
This is my idea, what do you think?
El Bandito, on 25 October 2016 - 05:37 PM, said:
One must balance between Clan tech and IS tech, or Clan Battlemechs will always be the big winner.
I guess that's how to do it.
Edited by The6thMessenger, 26 October 2016 - 02:06 AM.